Communicating from the Cutting Edge

The massive WEFTEC conference in Chicago in early October will give our industry a chance to again consider how we are communicating with the people we serve. I have written before on the twin realities that while we serve our communities beautifully – delivering a life-giving resource at a remarkably low price every minute of every day – our customers, often lulled into complacency by the sheer scale of our success, knows little of our work or about our enterprises. WEF’s Water is Worth It campaign, and AWWA’s parallel Only Tap Water Delivers campaign are solid efforts at responding to the second reality (customer appreciation) to help support the first (continued operational success).

Photo Courtesy of WEFTEC

We will discuss in numerous forums in Chicago the management, personnel, skills and expertise needed to help elevate and energize our industry. On the management side, I have two fundamental observations. First, the impetus and need for communicating better must come from the top. Governing boards and executive teams need to be united behind robust outreach campaigns – supporting relatively modest investments with the understanding that a better relationship with our customers is the only way we will attain the rates and revenues we need to carry forward our work. Second, we as executives need to recruit and retain the very best communications and social media experts – and be open and nimble to a field that is changing fast even for the millennials, let alone for those of us who grew up using rotary dial phones.

On that score, I am pleased to report that the DC Water Board has consistently exceeded my hopes on the governance front, supporting significant investment in our effort to change in a profound manner our relationship with the people we serve. At the same time, I consider myself blessed to have been served by some of the best media professionals in Washington, DC – and their superb team.

The result has been a remarkable expansion in the range, quality and quantity of our media and public exposure. I link below to some of these stories, just to provide a sense of what is possible.

First, we believe our best route to our customers is through drinking water — which we provide along with enriched water (wastewater) and some stormwater services. We are aggressively promoting our product, which is the source of our revenues and core of our reputation. This includes hosting blind taste tests with bottled water throughout the city, and the expansion of the TapIt program to make it easy to refill reusable bottles.

Tap Water Wins D.C. Taste Test – NBC WashingtonHow Well Do You Know Your H20? – EPA Blog “It’s Our Environment”Second, we believe that our industry must be innovative in all that we do – demonstrating to our customers that we are making every dollar go farther and deliver even better results. We have had remarkable success on the technological front, and I provide some examples of the coverage we have received below. I will be writing shortly about how we plan to expand our successful model to
spur innovation to everything we do at DC Water.

Third, we want to highlight the importance of our huge capital projects – which are absorbing most of the hikes in ratepayer costs, and which to this point are largely invisible. As a result, we have named our underground tunneling machine “Lady Bird,” and she has her own twitter account which keeps followers informed about her critical work underground.

Finally, and perhaps most important, we are encouraging some long overdue attention to the core work of DC Water and the people who do it. The size and scale of the systems that deliver the water, and retrieve it once it’s used, is remarkable. The skill and commitment of the people who work to keep the system working is unknown but vital to all of us. These are some of my favorite stories:

So, on to WEFTEC many of us will trek – to learn and teach and expand our horizons. This is one of my favorite times of the year and I have learned much from my compatriots in the field. I hope we can offer some helpful ideas as well.

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